Another Analogy

This afternoon we experienced another analogy between God and His children and us as parents with ours.
Christopher is certainly giving us a run for our money, let me tell you! Life was calm this afternoon, until he slipped while playing with his dump truck and tried to balance himself with the glass panel of the gas fireplace that had been on all day! I heard the truck hit the flange at the bottom of the fireplace and then after a brief pause, I heard his ear piercing screams! I ran over as fast as I could, only to see him throw both of his hands up to his face and just scream and scream!
I finally pulled his hands away and saw, thankfully, that only the entire palm of his left hand was bright red. That's bad enough, but I feared both hands, or even his face, would have been burned. I plunged his hand into cold water and started praying. Thankfully, he seemed to like that cold water and had fun playing, but as soon as I would pull it out, the screaming would start again.
When Fred came home, the agony that he showed on his face watching Christopher screaming in pain touched my heart. This is what God must look like when He sees His children screaming in pain. He wants to heal us and take away the hurt, but we keep pulling our injured selves away from Him and try to protect ourselves. If only we could see that God wants to HELP and our pulling away only delays relief! Fred did just what I imagine God longs to do for us. He scooped up Christopher, held him tenderly and close and sang and spoke gently to him. He dropped everything he was doing to hold his injured child and comfort him. Whenever Christopher would scream again, Fred would wince in pain with him and hold him even tighter. Can you picture God doing that for us?! It was so amazing watching this and the analogy for me of a father and his child was so clear tonight.

Lord, help me remember to always come to you when I'm in pain. Remind me that You are there to help me and relieve me from my pain. Comfort me when it seems there is no comfort available. Hold me close like I saw Fred holding Christopher tonight, and reassure me that I'm safe in your arms. And please heal little Christopher's hand quickly!! He can't even crawl with it in so much pain! Thank you for protecting the rest of his body from injury. We put ourselves and our children in Your hands again and again.